Emerging Technology Design

The master track Emerging Technology Design teaches IDE students how to introduce new technologies developed in one of the faculties of the UT into the consumer market. Students that choose the master track Emerging Technology Design wish to:

• Understand applicability and constraints of new technologies

• Explore applicability of new technologies on markets of existing products

• Explore applicability of new technologies on markets for new products

• Design for new technologies and modify technology for new design

• Define product and/or technology requirements

• Communicate with researchers, manufacturers and customers

The students share 25 EC of their courses with the other two master tracks. Two courses (10 EC): 'Sources of Innovation' and 'Surface Engineering for Look and Feel' were especially developed for this track. In Sources of Innovation the students learn how to search for new markets or how to use a SWOT analysis for new opportunities. They learn that when looking for opportunities, weaknesses of a product or material can actually create new opportunities. For example, during the search for new possibilities for a heat-resistant ceramic material, the porosity of the material was considered a weakness. During a brainstorm session, a member of the innovation group suggested to consider this weakness as a strength. This lead to research into sewage plants where the material could be used for bacterial growth to clean the water.

Within the ETD track there are seven pre defined technology directions in which the student can specialize and finally do the master assignment. There is also a possibility to propose a personal technology direction. The technology directions and the coordinators who can give more information are:

Technology directions within ETD

Coordinator

Biomedical Product Design (BPD)

Ir. Edsko Hekman

Smart Environments and Virtual Reality (SE&VR)

Dr.ir. Maarten Bonnema

Sustainable Technology for Product Development (STPD)

Ir. Marten Toxopeus

Product and Surfaces (ProSurf)

Prof. dr. ir. E. van der Heide

Advanced Materials Engineering (AME)

Prof.dr.ir. Remko Akkerman

Structural Dynamics, Acoustics and Control(SDAC)

Prof.dr.ir. André De Boer

Other technologies and overall coordination

Prof. dr. ir. E. van der Heide

Within the technology direction 20 EC of courses have to be chosen in deliberation with the coordinator. Finally 20 EC of elective courses have to be chosen.

Examples of master assignments are:

• Design guidelines for biodegradable plastic products

• Redesign of a railway pantograph

• Design of a PV-thermal panel

• Noise reduction

The master track Emerging Technology Design teaches students how to introduce new technologies into the consumer market instead of introducing a technology for a single, specific product. In this way technology that is expensive because of its limited field of applicability can become cheap because it is adapted for mass production. On the other hand, consumer products can be modified and or new products can be brought to market because new technologies make it possible to produce new shapes (hydroforming) or cheaper (less parts due to friction stir welding) or more advanced (fuel cells, reduced sound). Another goal of this track is to decrease the distance between the research environment and the industry and market.

The co-ordinator and contact person for this track is Prof. Emile van der Heide